


Marriage Material

by Emirael



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Humor, Legal Drama, Misunderstandings, Multi, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:31:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emirael/pseuds/Emirael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Anna gives Kristoff his replacement sled, she has no idea what sort of legal consequences could follow her. Like unintentional engagement. To someone she just met. Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marriage Material

Anna wasn’t certain how everything had gone so terribly wrong in three hours. She’d just been trying to give her friend a sled, and yet she’d somehow ended up sitting in the dingy laws-so-old-nobody-cares section of the castle library with Elsa, Kristoff, and the royal family’s legal advisor. It was a perfect summer day, complete with a magical ice rink in the castle courtyard, and she hadn’t even gotten to try skating on it with her sister.

She was also possibly in violation of a highly unfortunate set of laws with possibly permanent consequences.

Beside her, Elsa sighed and adjusted her reading glasses as she peered at a dilapidated old book. “Don’t worry, Anna. We’ll figure out a way around this soon enough.”

The legal advisor sniffed, and Anna wondered how he managed it when the room smelled so bad. “There may not be, your Majesty, and, if so, your sister will simply have to live with the consequences of her actions.” He paused a moment, then added, “I’m sorry,” without much emotion.

Anna wanted to scream. All she’d wanted to do was to give Kristoff a sled. It had started off so simply.

*

“Okay. Okay, here we are.”

Anna guided Kristoff to the perfect spot and had him stop. A quick glance around confirmed that he’d get the best view of his sled from here and, besides, a decent sized crowd had gathered around the vehicle. They were keeping a respectful distance, but it was, after all, the latest model. She could hardly blame them for wanting to get a better look.

She pulled off Kristoff’s blindfold and couldn’t resist bouncing as he opened his eyes and took in the sight. “I owe you a sled!”

He gaped in disbelief, but the corners of his mouth were turning up slightly as he said, “Are you serious?”

Anna just nodded and smiled at Sven posing with the sled. “Yes. And it’s the latest model.”

Several people had begun to inch forward to admire the beautiful vehicle as Kristoff tried not to accept it and Anna told him about his new position and Elsa’s orders regarding the whole matter. She got to tell him about the cup holder and he really seemed thrilled about it too. The atmosphere was so joyous, Anna felt as if she might soar away.

“Do you like it?” She asked, just to be sure.

“Like it?” He seemed surprised at the question. Then Kristoff swept her high in the air and spun her around and, for a moment, she might as well have been flying. “I love it,” he shouted. “I could kiss you!”

He dropped her, suddenly embarrassed, and Anna smiled to note that his cheeks had turned pink. “I could. I mean, I’d like to. I’d…” he trailed off. “May I? We me… I mean, may we?” She giggled at his confusion as he muttered, “Wait, what?”

Then she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “We may.”

He smiled, then leaned in to kiss her and… it wasn’t perfect, but it was nice in a hundred different ways, and Anna found herself imagining how the next hundred kisses would only get better. She leaned in to the kiss a little bit more. Taking it slow meant she would enjoy every single moment.

Then an elderly voice shouted, “How wonderful! The princess is getting married!”

Anna ripped herself away from Kristoff’s lips, beet red. “What? No I am not!” She had seriously just been relishing the idea of taking their relationship slow.

“Well of course you are, Princess Anna.” An old woman with oversized spectacles made her way to the front of the crowd and Anna immediately felt slightly bad for yelling at her, but the feeling began to fade as the woman kept speaking. “You did just give that boy this lovely sled, yes?”

Kristoff nodded beside her and Anna’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Yeeeeeess, I did.”

The old woman smiled. “And then you kissed him on the cheek.”

Anna blushed slightly, but confirmed that she had. Kristoff went to put an arm around her shoulder, but she pushed his arm off with a quick, apologetic glance. If this lady thought they were about to get married, she didn’t want to unintentionally further the idea. He seemed to understand and stepped back after a moment.

“Then he kissed you, and you both seemed quite happy about it.” The old woman adjusted a shawl on her shoulders. “Young love,” she murmured, almost to herself.

“We were,” Kristoff said from behind her.

The old woman sniffed at him. “That Sami boy seems a bit rude to become your prince, but he’s obviously your choice.” Returning her focus to Anna, she continued. “The gift of a sled, a kiss on the cheek, and a kiss well-returned are the signs of a traditional Arendelle dowry and its confirmation.”

“Since when?” Anna sputtered.

Here the old woman smiled and seemed to become lost in her own memory for a moment. “Since before the time of my grandparents’ grandparents. It’s how I gave my husband, blessed be his memory, my own dowry, and it’s exactly how my granddaughter ought to have done hers.

“I think it’s wonderful that you’ve brought back the old tradition,” she continued, oblivious to the growing horror on Anna’s face as she recalled reading something like that several years back. “First, the coronation just last week, and now a royal wedding coming up.”

The crowd had started to murmur and talk amongst themselves. The old woman was saying something about how she wished her husband had lived to see this as she wandered away. From the people gathered, and they had begun to grow in number, attracted by the rumors of a royal engagement that seemed to be spreading quicker than Anna had thought possible. Snippets of the crowd’s conversation made their way to her ears and only troubled her further.

“Yeah, I heard my mother talk about that being how—”

“—to go tell my husband. It’s so romant—”

“Damn, that’s a fine sled the boy ha—”

“—not a bad girl either but—”

“Maybe it’s just me, but I’d take the sled over the princ—”

She turned to Kristoff and saw her panic mirrored on his face. “Did you know anything about this?” she hissed at him.

“Anna,” he said, “I was mostly raised by trolls. You think I have a clue about obscure human courting rituals?” Sven had wandered over, obviously understanding that Kristoff was distressed, and Anna resisted the urge to ask about non-human courting rituals. Rocks and reindeer probably made more sense than people anyway.

“Do you think we’ll have to get married?” he asked, glancing nervously about as if the crowd might begin to sing and throw wedding costumes at them at any moment.

Anna shuddered. “I hope not, I mean really. Eugh. Marriage sounds really terrible right now, actually. Just ew. Kristoff looked slightly offended for a moment and she hastened to clarify herself. “Not that I wouldn’t be opposed to marrying you, maybe, like, eventually! But we really just met, and I swear I’ve learned my lesson on marrying too soon. It’s really not a you-you thing, Kristoff, I’m sure you understand. I just—”

“ANNA!”

Anna turned to see her sister, quite literally, storming down the path from the castle. Anna had never seen her sister look so emotionally unrestrained (aside from the eternal winter thing) and as her sister’s heels clacked on the stones, tiny swirls of snow trailed off her cape behind her.

Elsa became more composed as she got closer to Anna, and she assumed it was because of the crowd. The queen couldn’t be seen as too tempestuous, especially after the whole mid-summer-winter issue.

“Elsa, I’m so glad you’re here!” Anna called out, hoping to forestall her sister’s anger with the truth: she really hadn’t intended to end up engaged so soon. “I could really use your help.”

The queenly expression softened into a more sisterly concern as Elsa took the last few steps toward her, and Anna noticed that snow had stopped swirling around behind her sister, though she seemed to have brought a slightly chill wind. “Word made its way to the castle rather quickly that Princess Anna just gave her dowry to my new official Ice Master and Deliverer. I take it this was not your intent?”

She cast a suspicious glare at Kristoff and Anna stepped in front of him to block it. “No, Elsa,” she said. “It wasn’t either of our faults. There was apparently this old tradition about giving a guy a sled and then kissing him—” Anna noticed her sister cock an eyebrow, but kept going. “—and then this old lady came up and babbled on about it being an old dowry thing.” She gestured to the gossiping crowd. “And based on their reactions, it actually sounds like a real deal.”

Stepping closer to her sister, Anna seized her shoulder and whispered, “You can make this not a thing, right? You’re the queen. Save me?”

Elsa frowned. “I’d need to consult someone better versed in this to see if it’s legally binding.” She raised a hand and waved over a soldier Anna hadn’t noticed follow her over, though it made sense. Even if the queen had ice powers, she couldn’t be expected to wander around the town without some sort of protective entourage. Anna had stopped paying attention to the handful that followed her around, though she’d planned on seeing if she could lose them on purpose sometime.

After a moment’s conversation with Elsa, her guard ran off. “I’ve sent him to fetch our legal advisor,” she explained.

“What, you can’t just order the law null?” Kristoff frowned. “I highly doubt the creation of royal ice master was something you had to double check with someone.”

Elsa shrugged. “The creation of posts I deem necessary for the betterment of the kingdom is within my reach, provided they’re within the budget for the staff. As for this… situation, if it hadn’t been so public, we might have been able to sweep it under the rug or something.” She shot a glance at Anna. “Like with the Hans thing. Due to the circumstances of his departure, nobody has brought it up.” Elsa blushed and Anna pat her shoulder. “There were also other issues distracting from that at the time.”

The three of them stood awkwardly for a moment when a little boy wandered over to them. “Queen Elsa?” He looked like he was about to tug on her dress and, unsure how her sister felt about physical contact with people who weren’t her, Anna kneeled quickly and grasped his hand.

“Oh, hello there!” she said. She’d been forcing the cheer a bit, but her smile turned genuine as she saw the boy’s face light up. He couldn’t have been older than seven. “What did you want to ask the queen about?”

The boy became suddenly serious and he looked up at Elsa with gravity beyond his age. “You’re not gonna let Princess Anna get married to him, are you? You can’t, you really really can’t!”

Elsa didn’t seem to know how to respond, and Anna was about to start saying… something, she wasn’t sure what, when an older woman came running over.

“Gregers! Gregers what are you doing, bothering the princess and—and the queen!” She hurriedly pulled him away from Anna and pushed him behind her skirts. “I am so sorry for my son’s behavior,” she continued, trying to curtsy and keep Gregers from getting away at the same time. “I just got so caught up talking with my friends that I—I didn’t notice he’d slipped away from me.”

Anna’s sympathy for her embarrassment dwindled at her stutter and the deepening of her blush. It sounded very much as if she’d been too busy gossiping about the princess’ new engagement to keep an eye on her son, and Anna wasn’t especially appreciative.

“But it’s really, really important, Momma,” Gregers insisted, still trying to get back to Anna. “I need to make sure Queen Elsa won’t let Princess Anna marry the reindeer guy.”

“Reindeers are better than people,” Kristoff muttered.

“Gregers, if you do not stop making a scene right now, you will be grounded for a—”

Elsa cleared her throat and Gregers’ mother instantly hushed. “As my subject, Gregers,” Elsa said clearly, “has deemed it of maximum importance to tell me this reason, I have decided to hear him out.” Anna got the sudden sense that Elsa was opposed to trivializing the desires of children, and her heart ached for a moment as she realized why that was.

A thorough silence spread across the entire crowd gathered there. Everyone was looking over and listening to see what happened. From the castle, a bespectacled man arrived with the guard Elsa had sent away, and, as Anna rose to her feet, she gestured at them to wait a moment before approaching her sister.

Gregers looked thrilled. His mother looked mortified, but stepped away so her son could approach their queen.

“Your Majesty, Queen Elsa,” he said, tugging at the edge of his sleeve. “At the end of mid-summer’s winter, it was the True Love between you and Princess Anna that made her better and stopped the winter. You really really can’t let Princess Anna marry that guy! She’s supposed to marry you!”

For a moment, the only sounds were the gulls and the waves in the harbor. Then, as a deep blush rose up Anna’s face, the crowd roared back to life with renewed gossip and vigor. Quite a bit of laughter was audible as well. She barely noticed Gregers being hauled away by his mother as she glanced at Elsa and Kristoff. She was relieved to find their faces as red as hers.

“I understand there are some issues to be sorted out regarding Princess Anna’s unplanned engagement to this young man?” The royal advisor’s voice was snooty and obnoxious, but Anna was glad of the distraction.

“Yes, there are,” said Elsa, face beginning to return to her normal pale tone. “Anna did not understand the consequences of giving this sled to Kristoff, which was not intended to be a dowry.”

“But then she kissed his cheek, and he kissed her in return?”

Anna nodded, but found herself blushing again. Hearing him talk about it so… clinically was almost worse than the gossipy crowd.

He shrugged. “Given that she’s eighteen, she’s of age to give her dowry to any man she chooses, with or without familial permission.”

She felt loathe to mention it, but on the off chance it might save her, Anna cleared her throat to speak. “Uhm, I don’t suppose it possibly can’t count because, I guess, legally, I’m still engaged to Hans of the Southern Isles? Or something like that? I never, like, legally cancelled that, I wasn’t sure if I had to, so… but I was going to check and get that done. Tomorrow, really…”

He looked at her disdainfully. “No.”

Kristoff had buried his face in one hand. Anna thought he whispered, “I just kissed an engaged woman, technically…”

“Okay, okay,” Elsa interjected. Anna was glad to see she didn’t look fond of the legal advisor either. “It’s not as if she and Hans even signed some sort legally binding documents. Surely, they are not still legally engaged.”

“If Princess Anna and Prince Hans of the Southern Isles had been mere commoners, their promise to marry would be worth about as much as pig’s mud,” he said, glancing briefly at Kristoff in a way Anna really disliked. “But, given that they are royal, even that ill-advised engagement held legal merit from the moment Princess Anna accepted.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Elsa said flatly. Anna was glad her sister had voiced her thoughts, because she got the sense that she’d have been far more rude about it. Thankfully, people seemed to have gotten the idea that, while their royal family was their current spectacle, they still merited space and privacy. The guards who had formed a bit of a perimeter probably helped too.

The advisor adjusted his glasses. “It is law,” he said. “This holds true for royalty of all ages, across all the civilized lands.”

“All ages?” Kristoff asked. “That’s… kinda creepy.”

Elsa shook her head. She seemed slightly pink. “That can’t possibly be right. I mean, when Anna was  four, she said she wanted to marry me when we grew up because our parents had explained marriage as a union of two people who cared deeply for one another. I thought it was cute because I was seven and told her that I would love to.” She looked at the advisor incredulously. “You’re saying that, legally, I’ve been engaged to my sister for fifteen years?”

Anna’s cheeks felt faintly pink as the advisor struggled to clear his throat. “Your majesty, might we relocate to the castle? I’m afraid this matter has just become somewhat more complicated, and I think some privacy is in order.”

Her sister’s blush deepened. “You can’t be serious, about—about the engaged to my sister thing. Our parents didn’t even say anything they just laughed! We were children!”

The advisor began to walk back to the castle. “I’m afraid it’s far more complicated than that.”

Elsa began to follow, cheeks still an undignified pink, and Anna shrugged at Kristoff as she followed after them. He looked like he was second-guessing their kiss slightly, but fell into step beside her.

*

Anna looked outside the window again, wishing desperately for the summer sun to be something she felt on her skin, not just watched outside the window. Kristoff looked close to dozing off.

“Well, it’s official,” said the legal advisor, closing a folder with a snap that woke Kristoff. “As your parents did not file any paperwork to cancel your engagement, which they could have done quietly and privately at any point in time, you have been, in fact, engaged to your sister for the past fifteen years.”

Elsa took off her reading glasses and rested her face in her hand. Anna could still see a blush peeking out, however. “And what exactly does this mean. You have yet to explain what exactly is so complicated about this issue. If it’s so simple, then fine. Anna and I will annul our… engagement. And her engagement to Hans. And I’m certain we can do something about the dowry sled mess with Kristoff.”

“Please tell me I’m not actually obligated to marry any of them,” Anna said.

“Princess Anna,” he said, continuing to only address Elsa in the most frustrating way. “is not obligated to marry anyone. In addition, her engagements to your Majesty, Prince Hans, and this Kristoff are now null and void.”

Anna resisted the urge to bounce in her seat. “That’s great!”

“What’s the complicated part?” Elsa asked. She’d removed her palm from her face and, was gazing levelly at the legal advisor.

He grabbed a book he’d referenced briefly earlier and opened to a page he’d marked. “By simultaneously setting herself up for marriage with three different people at once, Princess Anna has unintentionally invoked a peculiar legal clause. Allow me to read.” He cleared his throat and began:

“Should a man or woman become engaged, in a fashion officially recognized within the Kingdom of Arendelle, to three or more individuals at one time, they shall be declared unmarriageable and shall henceforth be barred from any legally binding contracts of matrimony within the Kingdom of Arendelle for the rest of their life. Any children born to such an individual will have no legal standing to inherit property or titles from either parent.”

“No!” Anna’s voice sounded exactly in time with Elsa’s. She felt like she might burst into tears, so she waved for Elsa to keep going.

“There must be some sort of rule, some sort of exception!” Elsa had risen to her feet and put an arm around Anna’s shoulders. In response, Anna buried her face into her sister’s dress. Never get married? No way to ensure her children were cared for? She’d just wanted to give Kristoff a sled. There had to be a mistake.

“I do not know of any exceptions, your Majesty,” the man said seriously.

Kristoff glared at him. “Since the four of us are the only ones who know about what happened with Anna and Elsa, how about we all just forget that Elsa mentioned it, and then annul her engagements to me and Hans.”

For the first time, the advisor pulsed with emotion. “If you are suggesting,” he snapped, “that we commit some act of fraud, covering up what has happened for our personal advantage, then you are a lower man than I assumed you to be! The legal system of Arendelle is the great equalizer. The laws protect the people here and all are equal before them, whether they are queens or paupers. If you tried to get around the law, I would go to the people with this tale, because they would deserve to know if their monarch has betrayed them so.”

He gestured at the book in front of him. “This law seems grossly unfair to you now, but it has and does protect people from those who would play at being engaged to others in order to rob them through dowries and bride prices. Good men and women have fallen prey to such villainous people. Since they usually court multiple targets at once, laws like this help keep people like that from accomplishing their goals.”

Elsa sighed. “He’s right, Kristoff. As the upholders of law, we are least able, out of anyone in Arendelle, to break it. That’s part of being a good queen.” She ran her fingers through Anna’s hair and that made her feel a little better. “If you would be so kind as to help us look for some sort of exception, I would be most grateful for your help. Perhaps something about Anna and I both being women? And, ahem, sisters?”

Anna felt her cheeks burn slightly as Elsa kept rubbing her head, but she pulled her face away from her sister’s dress so she could rejoin the conversation. The legal advisor shook his head. “I’m afraid not. There have been several, ah, high-profile cases actually, in the history of the royal family. Apparently you would not be the first set of royal Arendelle sisters to become engaged, though several of them seem to have done so for manipulative purposes.

Her sister’s cheeks were pink again, but Elsa kept going. “There must be previous cases that give precedence for some mitigation of that consequence then,” she said. “Hans was manipulating her at the time. There was surely some case with precedence we could draw upon where that has changed the punishment.”

“Maybe, maybe,” the advisor adjusted his glasses and began to flip through another book.

“Why does there need to be some sort of precedence?” Kristoff asked. “If the courts can rule with an exception, then why not take it there. They’re certain to give it to you.”

Anna rushed to answer, wanting to prove that she could explain at least a little bit of this legal junk. “That would make it public, Kristoff. It would possibly be even more of a scandal and, well…” she glanced up at her sister for a moment. “And a scandal this close to Elsa’s coronation isn’t exactly desirable. If there is a legal ruling with precedence we could draw upon, it could be handled without a full court hearing and then nobody would have to know.” She blanched after another moment of thought. “And if there’s a court hearing, Hans, as my, er one of my fiances, would have to come as well.”

“We’ll find an exception,” Elsa said, bending over to wrap her arms around Anna. “It’s going to be fine.” She let go and sat back down with the terrible, dusty law books.

Anna sighed and buried her head in her arms. She’d just wanted to give Kristoff a sled. It had been so simple.

*

Elsa’s cool hand on her shoulder shook her awake gently. “Anna, I think we’ve found something.”

Anna blearily sat up and nudged Kristoff awake. “What is it, Elsa?” she asked, yawning.

“It’s not exactly ideal,” Elsa said, “but given that one of your engagements is a forgotten promise and the other, we can reason, occurred under duress, the condition will hold, but only for ten years from your last birthday. Once you’re twenty-eight, you can get married again, and any children you have will be legitimate and legally recognized and everything.”

Ten years until she could be married. Anna felt like a weight had dropped into her stomach. She’d been wanting to take it slow with Kristoff, see how things went, get to know him better and all that. In the moments when she’d entertained, briefly, the idea of marrying him “one day,” that day had been, she imagined, maybe three or four years off.

The advisor sniffed and Anna nearly jumped. She’d forgotten he was there too. “This is, your Highness, the best deal we can find. Her Majesty and I have poured over every record we have available of this law being enacted. This is the best you’re going to get, unless you feel it would be worth the public scandal of bringing this to a public trial.”

Anna shook her head. “No, it’s fine.” Her voice sounded small. Ten years was… livable. She’d figure something out. “I think this is the best option we could take.” She glanced at Kristoff. He smiled awkwardly at her and she forced a smile back. If they were meant to be, then they would work it out in the end.

The rest of the afternoon was a flurry of business. Elsa privately arranged for a very discreet judge to rule in on her situation, Kristoff went out and took his sled home, and Anna spent a lot of time in her thoughts. By the end of the day, she was quietly declared unmarriageable for one decade and her three engagements had been made officially null and void.

Elsa found her in her bedroom, looking out the window. “You still haven’t come out and tried the castle ice skating rink,” she said.

Anna grunted. She’d always viewed marriage as the inevitable end-goal of True Love, preferably one to be reached as soon as possible once True Love was confirmed.

“All the commoners have gone home for the night,” Elsa continued, “but it’s still well lit.”

She’d had assumed that stretching out her assumed timeline with Kristoff would fix what she’d wrongly assumed about Hans, but further thought had made Anna unsure. Maybe just pushing the True Love marriage thing wasn’t the right answer.

Elsa walked over to stand next to the window. “The moon is full,” she said, smiling. “That was always your favorite.”

“The sky is awake, so I’m awake,” Anna repeated, a smile coming to her face. She wasn’t happy about what had happened, but she had a decade to figure out what place marriage had in her life. “Let’s go skating then. I was never any good, but maybe you can teach me?”

She grabbed Elsa’s hand and held it as they made their way outside. For now, Anna could spend every waking moment finding what place love had in her life. If she figured that out, marriage was bound to make sense later.

“I mean, seriously, Elsa. How did you manage to run up those stairs made of ice in heels made of ice? I’ve gotta learn that trick.”

**Author's Note:**

> This really got away from me. It was originally much shorter, but ended up being far too fun to write.


End file.
